The Internet services sector in India has potential to grow over three-folds to USD 124 billion with the help of favourable government policies and infrastructure improvement, a report by industry body IMAI said Tuesday.

"The Internet services sector in India is currently valued at USD 33.8 billion (about Rs 2.46 lakh crore) and by the year 2022, it is expected to reach USD 76.4 billion (about Rs 5.57 lakh crore) in conservative estimates...However, the sector has the potential to reach a value of USD 124 billion by 2022 if certain recommendations made in the study fructify," the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) report said.

Besides, the report estimates that the Internet sector is estimated to employ around 10 lakh employees presently, and is estimated to create 1.2 crore net jobs by 2022.

The IAMAI report 'Economic Impact of Internet Services in India' suggests that the sector can reach its potential USD 124 billion (around Rs 9 lakh crore) if certain critical factors such as forward looking and supportive government policies, better infrastructure for widespread internet connectivity, adoption of digital and advanced technologies across the ecosystem and offline sectors, etc, are realised.

It expects India to become a country of 1.4 billion people by 2022 and the number of internet users in the country is projected to increase 1.6 times from 481 million to reach 762 million in 2022.

Along with increased availability of Internet connectivity, the number of smartphone users in India too is estimated to grow at 1.75 times to reach 526 million in 2022, the report estimates.

"On the technology and business side of the Internet services, Internet will fundamentally change the way the needs, aspirations and demands of the consumers will be addressed. Pivoting on that, the Internet services sector is expected to witness plethora of changes in the future," the report said.

It mapped digital payments as a sector but not included in the total estimate given the challenge of double counting.

The report excluded several sectors like agritech, artificial intelligence, internet of things, machine-to-machine communications etc have not been included in the study because these sectors are yet to gain any critical mass that could be used as benchmark for future projections.

The study concludes that employment generation from the proliferation of Internet services will be at three levels- primary levels like direct employment generation in fields of Product Design and Development, sales and marketing teams etc.

The secondary level employment will be created in the forms of self-employment generation for sellers, cab drivers, utility service providers, content creators and the third or tertiary level of employment generation will be by allied industries in the ecosystem providing on-ground field support to the internet service providers, according to the report.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)